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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Last week was rainy... too rainy. Many areas were flooded last Friday and some areas are still flooded as of yesterday. Thank you for all the well-wishes. The area (or specifically the street) where I live does not flood (though the surrounding areas do). However, I was not able to visit my dad for his birthday last Sunday because he lives 3 hours away, in another city... and the provinces along the way to where he lives is severely flooded. We will be visiting this coming weekend. Hopefully, the weather will be better.

So we stayed home. I was feeling out of sorts last weekend and finally got sick yesterday. And since I wasn't feeling well...

This is our living room. And yes, it is filled with Andrea's toys. I was too tired to pick up after her so I just let her spread everything out. And who am I kidding? This is how our living room looks like everyday I guess. Daddy and our nanny cleaned up when I took Andrea upstairs for a bath. After her bath, to keep her quiet, I let her pick her shoes. She loves shoes (I think because she just learned to put them on by herself... changing her shoes every 30 minutes is like a game to her). This is what she picked.

Yeah, she wore her boots ALL day. Good thing it was raining, the weather was cool. Knee-high boots are not very practical most days in this country.

I wasn't up to making any projects since I was sick, but I did manage to semi-finish this dress for Andrea:

I used the same pattern (traced from one of Andrea's dresses) I used for the Minnie Mouse dress. Only this time I added ruffles to the bottom. This again made from another old shirt and left over fabric from when I made boxer shorts. I really need to buy fabric. I said semi-finish because I think the dress still needs a little something. Ruffles along the sleeves area? Ruffles along the neck area? Front pocket? Watchatink? I still have a little of that fabric I used for the bottom ruffle (just a little more so I can only add small pieces).

Friday, June 24, 2011

This idea isn't new. I remember seeing something like this on another blog I found at a link party but I wasn't able to bookmark the site.

I needed to buy Andrea bigger bolster pillows but I remember that someone gave her this thick baby comforter (not sure what it's called but it looks like this, like a very thick comforter). I wasn't able to take 'before' photos of the comforter but it's like really thick comforter stuffed with polyester stuffing inside. Since we disposed of her baby wooden crib, we don't use that comforter anymore.

To turn it into a bolster pillow... I simply cut it in half, rolled it (keeping the open edge inside when I rolled), and hand stitched the sides.

Roll half of the futon/comforter

Two halves of the comforter rolled to make bolster pillows.

Stitched both ends to keep the shape.

I then made simple bolster pillow cases from some fabric I have in my small stash (note to self: need to buy more fabric to keep in stock for quick projects like this).

It's a rainy day here in Manila today... non-stop heavy rain since yesterday and some areas are already flooded (fortunately, not the area where I live), government offices already sent their employees home (me hoping our company will do the same). Here's me hoping for a great weekend anyway. Hope you guys have a great weekend too!

Edited (06-28-2011):
Kelley of Kelley Highway left a comment saying that Rie of Home and Harmony has a project like this (Makeshift Bolster). I visited Home and Harmony and saw that that was the project I saw before that gave me this idea. Thanks for the info Kelley! :)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

We have outgrown Dora the Explorer in our household. Guess who the new toddler idol is!

Yep, Minnie Mouse! (or mi-mouse in Andrea speak and yeah, she calls Mickey and Minnie by the same now right now.)

I made her the dress inspired by Minnie's dress in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

I made it from this hot pink shirt...

...which I bought for P120 (approx $3) because I wanted to make this:

Anthropologie - The Gathering Tank

I had to cut up the whole shirt to make gathers and creases but I got stuck when it came time to attach the sleeves. Three months it lay there, waiting for me to fix the sleeves (which I already put in but manage to get wrong twice) but the thought of ripping it off and trying again was enough to put me off so when Andrea started showing interest in Minnie and I needed something pink to make her a Minnie Mouse dress... it was time to let go of this idea. I do believe the Minnie Mouse dress is so much prettier than 'The Gathering' dontchatink? (please agree with me).

For the bodice pattern, I traced one of Andrea's dresses and just made it a little bigger so she won't grow out of it immediately. I wanted to add sleeves... but I only had enough fabric left after the bodice and the skirt for one sleeve so I decided to go sleeveless (which is a good thing because I fail miserably when I start working with sleeves... any tips???). For the skirt, it's just 2 rectangles of fabric sewn together at the sides and gathered at the top to match the width of the bottom of the bodice.

For the polka dots on the skirt, I cut circles from white scrap fabric and used fabric glue to stick them to the pink fabric (too lazy to go the extra mile of sewing them on one by one). And then I made a white bow and added white buttons and my baby doll is ready to do the 'Hotdog Dance' with Mickey and Friends in style.

Had to blur out Daddy there in the background, lying on the couch.

This was the only photo I managed to take of her showing the whole dress... and it required some digital editing so you won't see Daddy's legs and feet in the background because Daddy refused to move.

The back of the dress

Here's a view of the back... plain as plain can be. Didn't have enough time to put polka dots at the back of the skirt before Mickey Mouse Clubhouse came on. Maybe next time.

Rolling on the floor with happiness

The only time you can catch her smiling or laughing is when she's moving... a lot. And the photo is blurred because I'm not so good with action shots.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

It's been a while since I refashioned something. I've been busy (hence, the lack of posts). But my to-do pile is mounting so last week, I decided to squeeze in a little project in between work and you know... life in general.

I've had this top for a while. I love the fabric, but the style is a little old fashion so it's a little short. I love how tops and blouses have gotten longer recently.

I wanted to add length to this shirt but I don't have fabric to match. I also wanted to remove the collar.

This is what I came up with:

I used an old magenta knit shirt as extra fabric to patch up the neckline after I cut off the collar. And I also added some fabric to the bottom of the shirt to make it longer.

From the photo, the 'Before' actually doesn't look that bad... but I definitely like my 'After' much better.

Sorry I haven't been able to prepare a tutorial for this. I took pictures and maybe I'll post it sometime this week but truth is, I'm rushing to finish this post. The past 2 months has been stressful and I haven't been getting much sleep since... hmmm... 2009???

Monday, June 13, 2011

When my daughter celebrated her first birthday, we gave her a Dora-themed party. I made the invitations myself and shared it here last November. I received a lot of requests for Backpack's face template (that I asked my brother, a graphics artist, to vector and clean up for me) that I used and I have shared that template with everyone who asked. To make it easier, the template is now posted on my blog entry for easy access by anyone who needs it.

Last Friday, I received a very sweet email from Nessa, one of the ladies who asked me for the template a couple of months ago. She used the template to make invitations for her daughter's first birthday too and shared her photos with me. Isn't that sweet?

Aside from the invites, Nessa DIY-ed other party elements too. Can you ladies say 'labor of love?'

It totally made my day when I got her email. I love seeing projects inspired by something I posted here. It makes all the hours put into coming up with the concept and tutorial totally worth it when I know someone else aside from me gained from it :) So if you made something inspired by any of my tutorials, please feel free to share them with me. I would love to hear from you!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

You know those tall and elegant wood candle sticks that people always use for upcycling projects? I have always wanted one. Thing is, I don't know where to find them. I know there is a street in Manila where you can good antiques but I haven't had a chance to go yet. But I had an urgent need to redecorate (you will see why later) so I decided to improvise for now.

I bought some cheap cocktail glasses:

The small ones are P30 ($0.70) and the bigger ones are P44 ($1)

Turn the bigger ones upside down and then glue the smaller ones on top and you get these:

Still not the candlesticks I wanted, but they will do. Add some vase fillers and small white candles and...

Notice those 2 white bottles? Those are the vodka bottles I posted last week. I already finished spray painting them white... but they are still a work in progress (as soon as I figure out what else to do with them). The 2 speakers are part of our home theater system, and the rest are Andrea's toys and other stuff around our house that found their way there. And can you find the laptop in all that mess? Right... it's right there under the table, on the chair.

To start, I cleared all the junk out of the table. Except for the speakers. My husband told me they have to stay there *sigh*. I took a cream lacy table runner (again, from my grandmother), a big white vase that my mother-in-law bought years ago, and my candle holders... put it all together and...

Better.

And if you're wondering about the work area concept? Well... this is really silly but I later found out that I can't get a good broadband signal from this corner of our house so turning this into a work area didn't really work.

I am linking up to the following link parties: (yey, link parties, I'm back!!)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Hello again! After my 2-week hiatus, I finally had time to finish a couple of projects which I will be sharing with you this week. But before that... I want to share this...

It's been a long time since I did my nails. But last week, I found a bottle of nail polish in pretty turquoise at a bazaar and I liked it so much I decided to shirk a few chores last weekend to find time to do my nails. I did my toe nails too.

Uhm... Please don't look too closely... I did this myself so it's not perfect ;)

The color goes so well with these turquoise earrings which I got for only P20 (less than $0.50).